Freed
by Goth03
Summary: Bane gets set free on a technicality, and he goes looking for Prue – but is he prepared for what he might find? Bane/Prue. Oneshot. AU. Please read and review, but no flames. Thanks.


**Title: Freed**

**Rating: K+**

**Description: Bane gets set free on a technicality, and he goes looking for Prue – but is he prepared for what he might find? Bane/Prue. Oneshot. AU. Please read and review. No flames. **

_AU: Set about halfway through season 4. Bane Jessup is released on a technicality, and goes __in search of Prue – the woman who changed his life forever. The one woman he waited for._

**Freed **

Prue. Her name was Prue Halliwell. It's funny, a man says he loves a woman, and he gives her the world. What did I give her? Demons – two in fact, at different intervals. Maybe it says something about the guy who's doing the giving. Or maybe it just says more about the world.

They let me out on a Monday. Handed me in scrub the little and few possessions I entered the cage with. My watch, my clothes, my wallet; I wasn't surprised that my money had taken a hike; cops have got kids to feed too, as well as life's unfriendly addictions. Just like the rest of them.

The sun hit me like an expensive car; too fast, too quick and with a whole lot of wham. It hurt my eyes to be outside again. My clothes smelt stale, soiled with sweat and a cake of blood. I took my car from the impound lot and drove it real fast. I didn't have a particular location in mind, but getting anywhere away from the dump behind me seemed like a good idea. I tore up the road like a Christmas present, spreading speed to the dial. The car growled in my hands as I clutched the wheel; it was like it was being brought back to life by every mile that it was fed.

"That's a girl." I murmured, pushing my sunglasses up my nose, and smiling. It was good to be free. It was good to finally be able to get to where I wanted to go. Where I had waited for a whole year to be - to just see one face out of a million. It had been a hell of a long time. But I had told her I could wait. I silently prayed that she had too.

Counting steps like some men counted their coins, I walked up the front steps. My heart hung on a cliff edge, wavering this way and that. I wasn't sure if Prue was going to be the one who pushed it, or saved it from the fall.

Once I had pushed in the brass bell, the wires rang out like clockwork, making a knock less easy on my fingers. I leant against the whitewash doorframe with my hand in place and awaited the answer of a witch.

The door opened with the sound of laughter. It stopped fully open, with a dead stare. All laughter had vacated the young woman's face as she stood before me.

"Bane?" Phoebe Halliwell asked, shocked. She slipped her lids a few times in disbelief. She closed her mouth, and then stepped aside to let me in. She looked grim.

"Look, I'm not here to stay." I said vaguely, trying to appease her grimace, however she ignored me. With a click of the closing front door, she walked hurriedly over the floorboards to the base of the grand staircase. Her heels clicked like morse in a hurry.

"Piper!" She shouted. She lowered her eyes as we waited for the freezing sister to make an appearance. I decided to study the picture I was in; the walls were the same. All of it was the same. Not much seemed to change for these girls. I smiled slightly, remembering the last time I was here. The last time I had been out of the cage. The time I had been with Prue. Freedom is a good thing.

"What?" Piper snapped, coming down the stairs; in her arms she held a baby. She stared at me like I was some ghost.

"Sorry I didn't write." I shrugged, trying to pull a joke. They didn't seem so happy at my arrival; no face pinched an inch at my quip. I sighed.

"Look, is your sister about?" I asked, giving up on the possibility of small talk. It seemed a long distant formality. And a pointless one too. We all knew one another and didn't give a damn how each of us were.

"Bane." Piper said quietly, under her breath. She came down the stairs fully, and handed the child to Phoebe, who placed the kid in a pen. She folded her arms, stepped a bit, and then looked slowly up at me. Her eyes were big and soulful. I was slightly taken a back.

"Prue." She murmured, staring at me.

"Yeah, that's the girl." I nodded. Piper flicked her brows and then exchanged a short gaze with her sister.

"I think you better come and sit down." Piper said quietly, she gestured towards the living room. I shrugged before following.

"What's going on? I heard the door go – hello!" A new girl entered the room as we did; she eyed me with interest. Her gaze travelling north to south of my body. The girl obviously liked what she saw; her smile read more than a little obvious.

"I'm a taken man, sorry honey." I said to her, casting a slight smile, "now will you please tell me where Prue is?" I pursued, turning to Piper, and then Phoebe. The new girl made a face.

"Oh, I see." She murmured from her corner. She backed up a bit, trying to blend in with the wall and make pretty with some vase of flowers.

"Paige, you might want to sit this one out." Piper murmured distantly. She was staring at the floor; her eyes seemed glazed and far away. The new girl, Paige, however chose to linger. She crossed her arms and leant against the wall, as if waiting for something to happen. I frowned.

"What?" I asked. I didn't like her reaction. In fact, I wasn't happy with the situation full stop.

"Bane," Piper began confidently enough, but then she sighed, "Prue's… Prue's not here anymore." She finished, with a pained expression. She looked like she could well up at any second. I raised a brow.

"So, where's she gone?" I asked simply. There was nothing left too ask. I had the nasty feeling this was messy as Phoebe moved towards her sister automatically, putting her arm gently around her shoulders. She rubbed Piper's upper arm with her hand.

"Prue's dead, Bane." Phoebe said. Her words were like a dagger; they struck hard and true, ramming a firm way into my mind, body, soul… heart. My face pulled in from a hundred directions of my skull into shock.

"She- what? Why?" I glanced at either sister for answers, for the truth, "how?" I choked out finally. I stepped back, taking a seat for myself finally. It didn't really matter how. Or why. I put my head to my hand. I felt a sickness creeping over me – all that mattered was that it had happened.

"A demon." Phoebe answered quietly. She didn't look sad anymore. She looked sympathetic - she felt pity for me. As the tears came, I couldn't help but laugh. The bitterness seeped through every tug of my lungs. My thoughts hit my head like bombshells, exploding into snippets of anger; sadness; truth. Pain.

So. Peace and a bit? I could almost laugh at the spite the world had just thrown at me. I was never meant to get the picket fence, or the girl from my dreams; that wasn't part of the deal. I'd paid my dues, but yesterday's criticisms still clung on like a bad smell. I was never meant to get the whole bag. It made a sort of insane sense in a way.

Heh.

I guess some guys just never get freed.

The world won't let them.


End file.
